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Apr 17, 2016 · The lives of the eight clergymen were deeply influenced by the times and the Letter itself. (Though none of those eight ever actually received the Letter, and King did not know any of...
- Chris Bodenner
Jul 14, 2013 · Although initially addressed to eight “liberal” Alabama clergymen, the letter gained a wider audience once published in the June editions of Christian Century magazine and Atlantic Monthly. In his letter, Dr. King insisted on the need for immediate racial change and the absolute necessity of protest until change occurred.
- Events in History at The Time of The Letter
- The Letter in Focus
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Historical background: the long reign of Jim Crow
For three-quarters of a century after the end of Reconstruction—that is, from about 1880 to about 1955—African Americans made little progress in their long struggle for equal treatment in American society. Throughout much of America, blacks faced daily discrimination and segregation in schools, housing, and employment. In the South, however, where most blacks lived until the 1930s and 1940s, racial segregation was even more pervasive. Varieties of segregation were enshrined in the so-called J...
The civil rights movement
The first cracks in the wall of segregation came during and just after World War II (1939–45). Black leaders such as labor organizer A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) had long pointed out the valuable contributions of black soldiers and workers in defending a nation that accorded them only the status of second-class citizens. Only at Randolph’s repeated insistence did the federal government desegregate first the defense industries (1941) and then finally the armed forces (1948). Between these tw...
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Civil disobedience has also been called “passive resistance,” but King preferred the term “nonviolent confrontation,” which stressed the idea of assertive action in opposing injustice. The tradition of civil disobedience has its roots in the thought of ancient writers such as Cicero (Roman, first century b.c.e.) and St. Augustine (Roman, fourth century c.e.), who distinguished between just and unjust laws. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King quotes an idea of St. Augustine’s, which, alo...
The contents
King begins his response to the eight elergymen in a tone of respect that he maintains throughout the work. Although he rarely answers “criticisms of my work and ideas,” he writes, he is taking time to do so “while confined here in the Birmingham city jail” because “I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth” (“Letter,” p. 77). The first criticism King addresses is the clergymen’s characterization of him and the SCLC as outsiders. On a superf...
King’s middle road between passivity and anger
One aspect of the white clergymen’s letter thatKing particularly objects to is their characterization of the demonstrations as “extreme.” Very much to the contrary, King defines his position and goals as centrist: “I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community” (“Letter,” p. 90). On one side are those “who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect” that “they have adjusted to segregation,” while on the other side are those consumed by “bitt...
Sources
While in jail, King had no access to books or any other literary material other than a few newspapers. However, in composing the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he was able to draw on his extensive past reading. In the text he refers to both secular and religious writers, occasionally quoting from memory. He quotes secular writings by Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and T. S. Eliot, but the vast majority of his references are to religious works, either scriptural or theological. One of the w...
Blumberg, Rhoda Lois. Civil Rights: The 1960s Freedom Struggle.Boston: Twayne, 1991. Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. ———.Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–65.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Fairclough, Adam. To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian L...
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on April 16, 1963 as a response to a letter titled "A Call for Unity" which was written 4 days prior. "A Call for Unity" was signed by eight white clergymen who led churches in Birmingham, Alabama.
The SCLC was heavily influenced by its first leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who advocated a policy of nonviolence. King and his allies refused to engage in violence, even when attacked. King’s strategy of nonviolence drew a public statement of concern from eight white religious leaders in an open letter entitled “A Call for Unity ...
In ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, King answers some of the criticisms he had received from the clergymen in their statement, and makes the case for nonviolent action to bring about an end to racial segregation in the South.
People also ask
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Learn how The Eight White Clergymen played a key role in the context of Letter from Birmingham Jail. Read a biography and get in-depth analysis.
